Shrooms in the News Vol. 7: All the Guided Psilocybin Therapy Headlines Fit to Print

And so we meet again—here at the intersection of groundbreaking research and dubious declarations. Let us once again dig through the dustbin of the internet and unearth actual information about guided mushroom therapy.

Behold, your 7th installment of Shrooms in the News, a bimonthly roundup of what’s happening in the world of legal psilocybin.

I Tried Magic Mushrooms for My Mental Health. Here’s What Happened.

This is a thoughtful, discursive article that not only follows a 50-year old cancer survivor through a clinical psilocybin trial in Denver, but it also focuses on the author’s own healing journey through micro doses of psilocybin.

While clinical trials differ from actual psilocybin therapy in Oregon—we use actual mushrooms and don’t hook you up to equipment—it’s a great breakdown on what it’s like to trip mushrooms in a guided setting.

Could Psilocybin Help Treat IBS?

Not summary findings of a trial but an announcement of new research, this trial will examine if psilocybin can help folks repair the relationship between the gut and the brain. It’s fascinating and another example of just how dynamic this therapy may be.

Enhanced Meaning Following Psychedelic Use

Using a mystical experience questionnaire, these folks interviewed a representative group of psilocybin patients—from trial participants to plant medicine retreat attendees—and determined that psychedelic use produces lasting enhancements in the perception of meaning in life

This is Your Priest on Drugs

Sadly, this one is behind a paywall, but if you’ve got a library card, you’ll have access. Published in the May 26th issue of the New Yorker, Micheal Pollan explores the results of a 2016 study that tried to quantify mystical experience for religious leaders on mushrooms.